Snuff Film
A Snuff Film is a film or video featuring the actual death murder of a person or persons for the purposes of entertainment, shock, or as a warning to others. History In the past, snuff films were simply Urban Legend, and typically featured the simulated rape and usually murder of a female victim. These types of films were distributed as entertainment and were largely ignored. However, in recent years, genuine murder films have been released through various channels--namely the internet--by various individuals or groups. Real World Radical Islam Islamic terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda have released several videos in the past years featuring the brutal beheadings of those they consider enemies of Islam. These videos often begin with the victim kneeling in front of a group of armed terrorists while the leader reads a statement condemning the victim's country. The victim is then beheaded with a knife or similar blade, with no regard for "quickness". Such victims include: * Nick Berg (USA) * Kenneth Bigley (UK) * Eugene Armstrong (USA) * Jack Hensley (USA) Mexico Mexican drug cartels have released several videos very similar to those of Islamic terrorists. In the past, cartel videos simply featured the aftermath of the beheading and/or dismemberment of their victims; typically Mexican Federales, rival drug lords, or the families of failed assassin's. Ukraine In 2008, two of three Ukrainian teenagers, known as the Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs were charged with the violent murder of Sergei Yatsenko. In the cell phone-recorded video, Igor Suprunyuck brutally kills Yatsenko with a hammer, while another holds the cell phone and assists the murder with a screwdriver. Throughout the video, the two joke about the man's seemingly impossible will to live. Other videos were found involving the murders of at least 10 other people. The three young men, who were only sentenced to fifteen years in prison, are: *Viktor Sayenko *Alexander Hanzha *Igor Suprunyuck Criminal Minds * Season One: ** "Natural Born Killer" - After torturing his victims, Vincent Perotta would sometimes leave them to be eaten alive by the rats and other vermin infesting his home. He would record this using a camera mounted on a tripod. * Season Two: ** "The Big Game" and "Revelations" - Tobias Hankel recorded most of his murders using the victims' own hacked webcams. Afterward, he would post the videos on the internet, as a message to other "sinners". However, he did not get the desired effect, as most of the viewers simply assumed these films were fake. ** "Legacy" - Charles Holcombe would show footage (played on a projector) of himself vivisecting past victims to taunt future ones. * Season Three: ** "Elephant's Memory" - Owen Savage recorded himself gunning down three of his high school tormenters, and posted the footage on the school social network. * Season Four: ** "The Big Wheel" - Vincent Rowlings recorded his murders through a hidden camera in his eye glasses. He may have done this because his mother's own murder was unintentionally videotaped by him and his obsessive-compulsive disorder is forcing him into renewing the tape. * Season Five: ** "Hopeless" - Turner's Group videotaped themselves violently beating two couples to death with crowbars. Presumably for his own amusement, one of the trio used the footage to create a crude music video (possibly more than one, due to shouting, "You like that, sir? I got more" when Hotch finds the video). ** "Risky Business" - Will Summers would coerce teenagers into playing the choking game, and convince them to record themselves doing so. If the player died of autoerotic asphyxiation, Will would keep the video depicting their death as a trophy. ** "The Fight" - John Vincent Bell would send a tape of himself shooting a vagrant in the head to the wives of the men he abducted, as a message telling them not to go to the authorities. ** "The Internet Is Forever" - Using miniature cameras he would place throughout his victim's home during a number of break-ins, Robert Johnson would send live footage of himself strangling the victim to death directly to the internet, for all his "fans" to watch. * Season Six ** "25 to Life" - In 1985, James Stanworth had his accomplices, Thomas Wittman and Mary Rutka, videotape him as they broke into the Sanderson home, where James stabbed Carrie and Abby Sanderson to death. Afterward, Mary would keep the tape hidden, using it to blackmail James into supporting her when he became a successful businessman later in life. * Novels: ** Jump Cut - Wanting to create "the ultimate horror movie", David Yarno and Becker Chapin decided to film themselves murdering homeless people they abducted, using kills from obscure horror films as inspiration for their own "death scenes". Sources *Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs *Snuff Films *Prophet of Doom *Mexican Cartel Video (censored) Category:Terminology Category:Social Practices